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He turned back to her. “You’re right. Andrew will be fine.” He kissed her hard on the lips. “And this week will be amazing.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Amazing didn’t begin to describe it. Even Bobby’s departure a few days after they’d returned from Athens couldn’t dampen her spirits. The week had been more than she’d hoped. And so had Loucas. She leaned back in the day bed, watching as the two men played in the shallow end of the pool. The Aleksandros jet was set to take her back to her normal life the following morning and then she’d begin the truly difficult task of trying to enjoy life after paradise.
“Catch, Mikey,” the young child called, lifting his water wing clad arm out of the pool and throwing a wet ball through the air. Mikey squealed as it sailed straight into her stomach.
“Excellent throw, Andrew,” Loucas commended, raising his hand for a high five.
“Don’t encourage him,” Mikey glowered. She stood, and moved to the pool coping. She flung the ball from one hand to the other, pretending to weigh up who her target would be. Finally, she aimed it at Loucas. But he was too fast. He snaked out a hand and grabbed her by the ankles, and pulled her so that she stepped into the water and crashed into its cool wetness.
“Oh, you!” She cried, punching him playfully on the chest. He laughed, and swung her around in the water, holding her tight against his body. His eyes warred with hers. Dark brown with pale blue.
Mikey wriggled free and swam powerfully through the water towards Andrew. She needed a beat. Some space.
She knew she had to go. Leaving was the right thing to do. But the closer it had come to the day of her departure, the more difficult she found it to even contemplate. She hadn’t even told Andrew, yet. It was cowardice, she knew, but she was leaving her goodbyes with him to the last possible moment. She feared that one look in his melting
brown eyes would burn through the last of her surety that she must, certainly, leave.
Later that day, Mikey had just finished downloading a few new stories to her kindle, for the flight home, when Loucas walked into the lounge room.
“Your suitcases are already packed.” His words were laced with accusation.
She looked at him quizzically, placing the e-reader down beside her. “I’m leaving tomorrow.”
He scowled. “I don’t like it.”
“Loucas,” she laughed. “Don’t be ridiculous. Did you think I’d changed my mind somewhere between this morning, when we had this conversation, and now?”
“Andrew needs you.”
“Andrew needs you,” she corrected. “Just you. You and he are a family now.”
“A family.” Something seemed to spark in his head. “A family, yes.”
Nanny Paxton walked in, her usually unflappable face showing annoyance. “Stop hiding under that piano, young man. I asked you twenty minutes ago to come for dinner.”
Loucas and Mikey turned to face Nanny as one. “He’s not in here,” Mikey said, spinning around and looking beneath the piano.
“Oh, he was just a minute ago. I told the little scallywag to stop playing and come to the table but he didn’t listen to me, did he?”
“You don’t think he heard...?” Mikey flashed her eyes to Loucas.
He looked similarly stricken.
A breeze rustled in from outside, and all three of them looked towards its point of origin. The glass sliding door was open. It would have been easy for Andrew to scamper out from the piano and into the gardens.
“Oh, God,” Mikey cried, looking from one to the other. “We have to find him. It’s almost dark and there’s a storm coming.”
“Nanny, call for help. Get the housekeeper, anyone you can.”
“What’s the matter? What did he hear?” She asked, but she was already striding from the room.
“He didn’t know I’m leaving tomorrow,” Mikey explained to Nanny’s retreating back.
It was all Nanny Paxton needed to hear. She knew how much Andrew had come to love and depend on his speech pathologist. Her departure would be a difficult blow.
“You cover the grounds, I’ll go to the beach,” Mikey shouted over her shoulder.
